At my current latitude, the daffodils are in full swing - their bright yellow faces dancing in the wintery winds. Cherry blossoms are covering the once bare trees and new life is sprouting. There’s a new energy moving in with the upcoming change of season and it feels full of possibilities. It’s exciting, but it can make me feel a little scattered. There’s so much to do and see when the world wakes from its slumber all at once. I’ve been making a million lists in my notes folder (the notes app is truly my favourite part of my phone lol), in an attempt to organize my frantic little mind. My current go-to is my “potential paths” list, where I jot down potential life paths I could take in the hopes that seeing them listed before me will bring some sense of clarity. So far my list of ideas is only growing, not narrowing, but now I get to connect the dots between each idea to better understand my underlying theme. It’s an ongoing work in progress but spring is a glorious time to birth new ideas into the world after the dark winter days of conception, so I am here for it, even if my head is going for a bit of a spin.
Speaking of lists, I recently listened to this holistic list making workshop that my friend Rachel put on with Chloe Almeda. It was inspiring and just what my list-obsessed mind needed. I find list making so therapeutic, and I like to use it as a tool for visualizing and manifesting. It’s like I’m planting the seeds for my future self to reap. The current newfound calling on my mind is sheep farming. I snicker even when I type that but I’m for real! Over the past few weeks, whenever I go to see my parents we end up binge watching Escape to the Country, a British show where people are looking to move away from their city lives and, well, escape to the country. I’m completely addicted. And it’s been getting my wheels turning to the point where I am now looking up work visas for the UK and Ireland, sheep farm workstays, and housesitting gigs in the Hebrides. This website with all the ancient pilgrimage routes in the UK is also beckoning to me. I picture myself collecting water from holy springs, just like I imagine my ancestors who lived there once did. I don’t know if this is a “this too shall pass” moment, or if I need to strike while the iron is hot, so for now I am simply indulging in daydreaming about this fantasy life where I live as a crofter in a thatched roof cottage in Devon.
On trend with this back-to-my-roots farm girl ideal is my quest for raw milk. Wow, what a luxury so many people have access to, while here on the island it is like searching for hidden treasure due to its illegal status in Canada. Last year I struck gold and was in possession of a whole gallon and didn’t realize how lucky I was! I deemed that 2024 would be “my dairy year”, so I will wait and see if the lord doth provide. Raw milk is incredibly nutrient dense, especially if the cow is grass fed. It is a complete source of protein, and the enzymes that are destroyed during the heating of pasteurization are still present, which means our bodies are able to fully absorb the vitamins and minerals in the milk. Throughout history and across cultures raw milk (previously known as just “milk”) was used as a treatment for numerous health issues. My big inspo for this change is Dr. Weston A Price, a dentist turned anthropological nutritionist who did incredible research on diets and promoted nutrient dense, whole foods, and an ancestral diet. He is to thank for the hugely popular cookbook, Nourishing Traditions, written by Sally Fallon Morell (who is also the president of the Weston A Price Foundation, and my hero). I recently discovered that she has written a number of other books too, all of which I need to have. If you were to judge a book by its cover these would get a 10/10.
I wrote a bit about this on a recent instagram post, but it feels so good to surprise myself. What I mean by that is that a couple of years ago I would not even take a sip of someone’s coffee if they put cream in it. I was vegan for a while around ten years ago and some of the ideologies connected to that have been hard to shake. It is crazy that now I am literally pouring cream into smoothies and trying to maximize consumption. I just find it to be such a great reminder that we change and that’s a good thing. Our diets and habits need to be able to change with us and adapt to where we’re at. What is healthy for us on an individual level won’t necessarily be consistent and that’s ok! It’s kind of like large-scale eating for your cycle. There are different foods we can prioritize during our follicular, ovulatory, luteal, and menstrual phases. Likewise, we will need different nutrients and have certain cravings in different seasons of the year, and different stages of our lives. It can be easy to get trapped with all the dogma of diets, and to get stuck in old habits, which is why intuitive eating is so important. Intuitively, I am craving this sheep yogurt+walnut+honey dish I had in Greece last fall at a dairy bar. Yes, you read that right, a dairy bar.
Full transparency here, after a few weeks of going full blown dairy-fairy this year, my skin started freaking out. I’m not saying it’s the dairy per se…but it could be. Maybe the quality of the dairy hasn’t been high enough, maybe I’ve just gone a little too hard on the ice cream (we got my mom an ice cream maker for christmas and have been putting it to work, hehe), or maybe it’s an adjustment period! I’m experimenting, so stay posted for the results. Needless to say it takes time to figure out what is right for each and every one of us, so the best we can do is tune in and pay attention to the signals our body sends us. That and drink a lot of burdock root tea which is one of my favourite herbs for skin!
I hope you all are also dreaming big with the abounding piscean energy. I encourage you to follow what excites you, even if only through a daydream vision or a game of make believe. Write a list of your ideas! For now I’ll be doing the same by online window-shopping for English farm houses, reading Jane Austen, and eating copious amounts of “Coastal Cheddar”, my favourite British cheese. Fake it til you make it, right?
𝔅𝔩𝔢𝔰𝔰𝔦𝔫𝔤𝔰 𝔱𝔬 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔞𝔩𝔩 <3